Many entities desire to maintain very up-to-date address information for members of a population of interest. For example, creditors want their records to be updated as quickly as possible when a change of address occurs for one of their debtors. Similarly, mailers of catalogs, magazines, newsletters, and other items sent by mail typically want to keep their mailing lists up-to-date to ensure that their mailed items reach the intended recipients, without unnecessary waste of time or money.
Furthermore, these and other entities, including entities who market their, products and/or services to people who have recently moved, may also wish to link newly moved customers to their previous account information, where applicable.
Many such entities rely on change of address notifications submitted to them, via telephone, mail, email, or online, by individuals who are moving. However, some individuals may not be motivated to update their change of address information in a timely fashion, or at all.
Change of address notifications received directly from the individuals who are moving may be supplemented with change of address information purchased from the United States Postal Service (USPS). However, information from the USPS includes only instances in which a mail customer has requested forwarding of mail service from an old address to a new address. Information received from the USPS thus suffers from the same reliance on a mover's motivation to explicitly report a change of address. Furthermore, change of address updates from the USPS may become available only a week or more after the fact, which may be longer than some entities prefer to wait for notification.